School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Division of Hepatogastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association (Impact Factor: 1). 12/2013; DOI:10.1016/j.jfma.2013.10.023 Source: PubMed
ABSTRACT To evaluate whether on-treatment HBV-DNA level could predict the treatment response to entecavir in hepatitis B e antigen (HBe)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients.
A total of 68 treatment-naïve HBeAg-positive patients (75% male, mean age at 46.6 ± 11.9 years) receiving at least 2 years of entecavir therapy were enrolled. The primary therapeutic endpoint was HBeAg loss. On-treatment complete virological response was defined as serum HBV-DNA < 63 IU/mL.
The median baseline alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and HBV-DNA levels were 199.5 (27-1622) U/L and 7.7 (3.8-13.2) log10 IU/mL, respectively. The median treatment duration was 31.7 (24.3-69.6) months. The rate of HBeAg loss at 2 years was 30.9%. By univariate analysis, on-treatment complete virological response at Month 6 was associated with HBeAg loss at 2 years (p = 0.019). After adjustment for age, gender, cirrhosis, baseline ALT, and HBV-DNA levels, this factor remained significant in multivariate analysis (odds ratio: 4.35; 95% confidence interval: 1.24-15.24, p = 0.021).
On-treatment complete virological response at Month 6 is a favorable factor predictive of HBeAg loss at 2 years of entecavir therapy. Therefore, measurement of serum HBV-DNA level at 6 months of entecavir therapy is optimal to predict HBeAg loss at 2 years of therapy in HBeAg-positive CHB patients. 作者: StephenW 时间: 2013-12-14 21:23